Decades of innovation: 1930s-1940s

Our journey begins. But before we talk about technological or engineering innovations, we need to explore a business innovation that made all the others possible.

Our countryside was dark. Ever since the 1920s, city dwellers in nearby Monroe had enjoyed the convenience of electric power. For residents of Atlanta, electricity was common as early as the late 1800s.

The electric companies, however, had little interest in serving sparse rural areas. There wasn’t enough profit. Even with cheap loans from the federal government, there were no takers.

The people who were ignored decided to do it themselves. Seven Walton County community leaders established the Walton Electrical Association that later became the Walton Electric Membership Corporation.

And who owned this company? The same people that it served. This innovation of self-ownership – a cooperative – proved to be wildly successful and is as viable today as it was 90 years ago.

As for technological innovations in these early days, anything is an innovation when you start from scratch. A single lightbulb hanging from a drop cord in the middle of a room. A refrigerator that did away with the wooden ice box. A well pump that pushed water to a spigot head over a kitchen sink.

We consider these innovations low-tech today, but they changed life dramatically. Living in the country would never be the same.